• Office: Superior Court Judge
• Election Date: June 2, 2026
• Candidate: Phoebe Maffei
• Due Date: March 31, 2026
• Printable Version

Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the June 2, 2026 election! GrowSF believes in a growing, beautiful, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous city delivered via common sense solutions and effective government. Our work includes running public opinion polls to understand what voters want, advocating for those changes, and ensuring that the SF government represents the people.

The GrowSF endorsement committee will review all completed questionnaires and seek consensus on which candidates best align with our vision for San Francisco.

This questionnaire will be published on growsf.org, and so we hope that you use this opportunity to communicate with voters.

Please complete this questionnaire by March 31, 2026 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.

• Your Leadership
• Your Experience
• Personal
• Thank you

Your Leadership

We’d like to learn more about your leadership style and plan to execute effectively once you assume office.

Why are you running for Superior Court Judge?

I am running for San Francisco Superior Court Judge because I believe in our court system and I know how important it is that we have judges who are fair, compassionate, driven by a desire to serve the community, and grounded in real-world experience. I have been working in the San Francisco Superior Courts for 15 years, as an Assistant District Attorney, and I have seen first hand that the system works best when everyone trusts and believes in the courts. We build that trust by consistently holding people accountable for their actions, treating every person who steps into a courtroom with dignity and respect, and leading with compassion and empathy. I want to continue to build our community’s trust in our court system by serving as a Superior Court Judge who listens, is compassionate, and affords justice to all.

In your own words, what are the core statutory responsibilities of a Superior Court Judge?

A Superior Court Judge is responsible for making sure that all proceedings within their courtroom or purview are carried out in an orderly, efficient, and fair manner. The Judge must ensure that everyone is following the law and treating one another with respect, must uphold the Constitution, and maintain the integrity of the judicial system by being unbiased and fair in all of their dealings, both inside and outside the courtroom.

What makes you uniquely qualified for this position?

My breadth of experience, commitment to my community, strong work ethic, and positive attitude make me a uniquely strong and balanced candidate for Superior Court Judge. I have been lucky to be able to work in many different units within the District Attorney’s office, which has given me a broad range of experience in my 15 years of service. Additionally, I have lived, studied, and worked in San Francisco for 25 years, which has provided me with a deep and broad connection to the city and its people. Finally, I have always been able to put in the work while maintaining a good attitude, no matter the challenge. Overall, my background and experience, coupled with the strong relationships I have built during my legal career with attorneys, judges, and staff, enrich my ability to serve as a judge.

My work history and background reflect the breadth of my experience within criminal law and in my life before becoming a lawyer. As an attorney, I have taken on multiple different assignments over the years. I have worked on cases involving misdemeanors, domestic violence, elder abuse, public corruption, financial crimes, and general felonies. I have been assigned to staff the traffic court, have had many cases in the mental health courts, worked in our appellate division, and handled misdemeanor charging. My cases have touched on many different evidentiary and procedural issues, and I have not shied away from novel or public cases. I have always enjoyed doing the work, no matter what has been asked of me, and have been given the opportunity to work in so many areas because of my adaptability and positive attitude. Each new assignment required me to become quickly familiar with a new area of the law and I enjoyed the challenge and opportunity to learn something new. I would carry this flexibility and enthusiasm into my work as a judge.

I have also held many different jobs before my legal career. Even as a young teenager, I always wanted to work. In high school I babysat, worked retail after school and in the summers, and was a camp counselor. During college, I started waiting tables and bartending. Working in the restaurant industry set me up with skills that have served me well in my career as an attorney. As a waitress and bartender, I learned how to deal with the many and varied personalities that walk into a restaurant or bar. These experiences taught me how to stay calm in the face of an irate person, provide respectful and kind service to all people, no matter their circumstance, and not to take personally the actions or comments of people behaving poorly.

Additionally, I spent a year and a half between high school and college working with a nonprofit organization called City Year. With City Year, I served low-income students and families in San Jose, California, by running a camp for elementary school children, tutoring children in afterschool programs, and facilitating a leadership and diversity program for high school students. My time with City Year gave me a better understanding of what it means for a family to struggle, the barriers that poverty can place on a young person, and how to be a friend and ally to people and communities different from me. I also saw, first hand, the impact of violence on young people. Neighbors in the community where I lived and the students I worked with dealt with community and domestic violence with devastating frequency. I saw how destabilizing and traumatic it is for people to grow up without a sense of safety in their homes or broader communities.

These different work and life experiences taught me how to deal compassionately and professionally with people on both their best and worst days. In the courthouse, I encounter many people on their worst days. In those moments, because of my background, I know how important it is to ensure that people feel they have been heard and that what they have to say, or sometimes just their presence, matters. I know that it is important to remember that everyone’s circumstances are different, but not to assume I know or understand them without being told. I am empathetic and kind, but not without reasonable limits and boundaries. I have developed thick skin and understand that doing the right thing often means that someone will be unhappy. I have seen great judges in San Francisco make the hard and unpopular decisions by considering all the facts and the whole person in front of them before coming to the just and right conclusion, not the obvious or easy one. I hope and believe that I can do the same if I am elected.

Lastly, I would be a positive and enthusiastic presence at the courthouse. I love being at the courthouse and working with all the different people who come through as attorneys, staff, and members of the public. I am deeply committed to this community, both the legal community I have been a part of for over 15 years and the city where I live and work. I am raising three girls in this city, and I want it to continue to be the bright and vibrant place I have known. As a judge, I would work hard in every task given to serve the bench and the city well.

What three measurable outcomes should San Franciscans use to evaluate your success after your first term in office?

At the end of my first term, I hope that surveys of jurors, attorneys, staff, and the public who have accessed or litigated cases before me will show that I have been fair and just in my work and treatment of others in the courtroom, that data will show that I have been efficient in moving cases through my courtroom, and that higher courts reviewing my work have affirmed my decisions.

Your Experience

Since the State Bar prohibits judges from discussing how they may or may not rule, we would like to focus on your career experience. Voters want to know what judges have done in their careers before becoming a judge. In this section we hope to give candidates a chance to explain to voters what makes them qualified for this job.

Please provide an overview of your career. Please include, if applicable, experience representing the elderly, the disabled, and members of marginalized groups. Be as brief or as verbose as you'd like. (Note that follow up questions will focus on particular verticals.)

I have been an attorney at the District Attorney’s Office since December 2010 and worked as an intern in the same office throughout my time in law school. I have had many assignments over the years, including in the Traffic Court, Misdemeanor Trials, Misdemeanor Charging Unit, Misdemeanor Domestic Violence Unit, Writs and Appeals, General Felony Preliminary Hearings, Special Prosecutions Unit (financial crimes, public corruption, public integrity, and elder financial abuse), the Vulnerable Victim Unit, Major Crimes Unit, and Homicide Unit.

In these assignments I have handled all kinds of criminal cases from investigation and charging through trial and sentencing. I have led pre-charging investigation and case review, including search and arrest warrant review, participation in suspect and witness interviews, evidence collection and review, and charging in addition to presenting investigations before the Grand Jury. In my work in the Special Prosecutions Unit, I was also involved in the review of Officer Involved Shootings and In-Custody Deaths. Additionally, I serve on our office Brady Committee, in which we review information and allegations of officer misconduct and make recommendations regarding legal disclosure requirements for the whole office.

I have been a consistent advocate for victims in my cases. There is no single type of person who is a victim of crime. I have stood up for people from all backgrounds and races, members of the LGBTQI community, people who are citizens and non-citizens. I have worked with those who have been victims of domestic violence, elder abuse, financial fraud, property crimes, and street crimes. In each case, I have worked hard to afford a voice within the court process to those who are frequently silenced and to treat everyone with respect and dignity.

I have also handled cases in which traditionally marginalized people are accused of committing crimes and I have brought the same level of respect and dignity to these cases. In all my case work, I want all the information I can get about a person, their background, and what got them to my courtroom so that I can work with the defense attorney and the court to reach the best outcome in each case. Justice and accountability require taking into account the whole person who is facing the court, the needs of the community, and the impact of the alleged conduct on any victims involved. I have worked to craft creative sentences and outcomes in order to help all parties see closure, growth, and accountability.

I have been able to negotiate successfully in my cases because I have an ability to work well with my colleagues, the defense bar, other criminal justice agencies, and the courts. I have built a strong reputation in the community for being fair and reasonable in my work and for being kind, direct, and compassionate in both work and life. My reputation in the community, and the need within my job to consider the needs of all sides in a case, make me uniquely qualified for the position as a Superior Court Judge.

In addition to my litigation work, I have been engaged in the elder justice community in my work on physical and elder abuse cases over the years. I participated in weekly meetings of the San Francisco Elder Abuse Forensic Center for 10 years. The meetings were attended by members of Adult Protective Services, the Public Guardian/Public Conservator, Police Department, Ombudsman, as well as medical doctors and psychologists from UCSF, financial services professionals, and representatives for elder care and supportive services across San Francisco. The Forensic Center team collaborated on specific instances of elder/dependent adult abuse and neglect that are particularly challenging and often fall between the parameters of civil and criminal law. We also discussed and brainstormed broad issues related to physical, financial, and emotional elder/dependent adult abuse in our community.

In the course of my participation with the Elder Abuse Forensic Center, I was asked to co-chair the Elder/Dependent Adult Death Review Team. I accepted the position and sat as the co-chair, on behalf of the District Attorney's Office, for two years. We worked with many of the same agencies as the Forensic Center as well as the Medical Examiner's Office to review instances of Elder/Dependent Adult deaths in San Francisco and examine whether any additional or different interventions or engagement could have prevented the deaths. My role as co-chair was to help facilitate the meetings, screen the cases we would be discussing, and coordinate with our partners regarding our year-end findings and recommendations.

What is your experience in criminal trial law? How many cases have you tried, are there any you're particularly proud of?

As a trial attorney, in multiple different units across the office, I have been responsible for every aspect of litigation from arraignment and pretrial motions through sentencing and restitution. I was responsible for case negotiations and all pretrial litigation, including written and oral advocacy, victim and witness communication and coordination, and preparation and organization of trial exhibits and evidence. I have taken thirty-four criminal jury trials to verdict, primarily involving domestic violence and elder abuse charges, though I have prepared and litigated hundreds more that were settled prior to trial. These cases have involved a myriad of evidentiary and procedural issues that have required extensive research, briefing, and argument.

I am very proud of all of my litigation work. Each case has given victims of crime an opportunity to stand up and be heard in court, and to ask for justice and accountability from the jury. While all of my case work has been important, the successful prosecution of David DePape (People v. David DePape) for his attack on Paul Pelosi was an important and defining moment in my career. As lead counsel on the case, I worked hard to see justice served, despite many challenges. This was my most public achievement as an attorney, one of which I am very proud, and was an important case for the victim and his family. I was honored to be given the opportunity to take a stand against violence in this prosecution. Mr. DePape was convicted of aggravated kidnapping, residential burglary, false imprisonment, criminal threats, and dissuading a witness. He was sentenced to life in State Prison without the possibility of parole.

I am also very proud of my work in an earlier case involving both domestic violence and elder abuse. In People v. Andrew Kuhaiki, I prosecuted Mr. Kuhaiki for charges of assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, witness intimidation, robbery, and false imprisonment. Mr. Kuhaiki was living with his girlfriend, her mother, and her sister. There was a significant history of domestic violence in his relationship with his girlfriend, which he had been charged and convicted of five years before this case. In response to being told to move out of the house, Mr. Kuhaiki attacked his girlfriend's elderly mother and disabled sister. Armed with a machete, he held all three women captive in the home and injured one of the women with the machete. Mr. Kuhaiki was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, witness intimidation, and criminal threats. He was sentenced to serve seven years in State Prison.

Similarly, what is your experience in civil trial law?

I worked on a few civil cases in my time in the Special Prosecutions Unit at the District Attorney’s Office. Of particular note, I was one of several attorneys working on the cases of People v. Uber Technologies, Inc., [CGC-14-543120] and People v. Lyft, Inc., [CGC-14-543113] both filed in 2014. Both cases were brought pursuant to the Unfair Competition Laws and False Advertising Laws of the Business and Professions Code. The case against Lyft, Inc., was filed concurrent with a stipulated judgment and injunction. The case against Uber Technologies, Inc., involved some litigation before a stipulated judgment was reached in 2015.

These two cases were my first and only substantial work in civil law, so much of my work on the cases was supportive of our team of attorneys who were more experienced in the area. I was very involved in the initial investigation and research done regarding what we believed

were violations of the regulations around truth in advertising, fair competition, and the requirements for taxicabs and livery drivers in California at the time. This involved becoming familiar with many areas of law that were new to me and then working with a team of lawyers and investigators to find factual support for our claims. As the litigation against Uber Technologies, Inc., progressed, I assisted in the discovery process, participated in all the case meetings, conducted research, reviewed case materials as they were prepared and filed, and drafted motions. I worked with the team in drafting the stipulated judgment and injunction in both cases.

Superior Court judges regularly preside over serious criminal matters, including allegations of organized criminal activity. Without speaking to any specific case or how you might rule, please explain the court’s role in ensuring cases alleging organized criminal activity are handled fairly, efficiently, and in accordance with the law?

As a candidate for Superior Court judge, I understand the court's critical role in handling organized criminal activity cases. The court ensures fairness by maintaining impartiality and upholding due process, allowing all parties to receive a fair hearing and ensuring defendants have access to legal representation. Efficiency is essential and the court must manage its docket effectively to prevent delays and ensure the efficient administration of justice. The court must consistently apply the law and treat litigants and victims with dignity and respect. Ultimately, the court's role is to uphold the integrity of the legal system through fair, efficient, and lawful proceedings.

SF courts face challenges involving defendants with severe mental illness, conservatorship questions, and competency evaluations. What experience do you have in your career in representing clients with these issues?

As an Assistant District Attorney, I have not had clients in my practice, however I have been deeply involved in cases involving both victims of crime and people accused of crime who were dealing with mental illness, conservatorship questions, and competency evaluations.

In my criminal work, I frequently litigate cases that are being sent to Mental Health Diversion and Behavioural Health Court. In that litigation, I have argued against participation for people whom I believed were either not suitable or not safe for treatment in the community. I have also worked with defense attorneys, judges, mental health professionals, and social workers to craft treatment plans and plea/sentencing structures to allow people to participate in these programs when they are suitable, amendable, and safe for treatment within the community. Ensuring adequate mental health treatment and resources for both victims of crime and those accused of crimes is incredibly important to safety in our community, because if we are not addressing underlying mental health issues then the same issues will resurface when people are no longer engaged in the criminal justice system.

In my work within the community, at the Elder Abuse Forensic Center, I frequently encountered cases involving questions around conservatorship and competency. A large problem, particularly related to financial exploitation of elderly and dependent adults, is assessing and monitoring a person’s competence while supporting elderly and dependent adults in independent living environments. Personal autonomy is fundamental to our humanity and central to our Constitution. Unfortunately, it is also something we see erode as we age or lose mental capacity. I worked with the Public Guardian/Public Conservator as well as private conservators and fiduciaries at the Forensic Center and in many of my cases that involved financial elder abuse. We worked together to try to support people in their independence while also trying to prevent self-induced harm, victimization by others, and harm to others. These cases were particularly challenging and frustrating because in many areas, the law requires you to allow people to make their own bad decisions and it is very difficult to see avoidable harm occur.

San Francisco courts face significant backlog challenges in both civil and criminal divisions. What case-management practices do you believe help courts manage caseloads efficiently, reduce unnecessary delay, and ensure timely resolution for litigants?

Certainly, additional courtrooms, judges, and staffing is the first thing that would assist with delays in the court process. In so far as case or courtroom management goes, ensuring that court dates are set thoughtfully, so that litigants have the information and time they need to be prepared for each court date, to avoid unnecessary continuances and actually speed up

the pace of the litigation; improving the technology available at the courthouse so that calendars move more efficiently and without technology related delays; and providing robust options for early resolution and mediation. All these options can help courts be more efficient in litigation of both criminal and civil cases.

How will you ensure impartiality, avoid implicit bias, and maintain fairness in your courtroom? Please describe practices you use or would use to ensure equal treatment of all litigants.

The goal in all my work has been to ensure safety in the community for everyone. My perspective from working with diverse communities on both sides of my cases has afforded me an understanding of the impacts of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-immigrant sentiment, and other harmful biases and oppression on the orderly administration of justice. It is important to me as a candidate and an attorney that every person who walks into a courtroom in San Francisco feels that they are respected as a person, heard and seen by the court, and believes that they will receive equal opportunity under the law and judgment without bias or inequality.

In order to create a safe and equitable courtroom, I will be sure to take the time in my work to listen to litigants and attorneys. I will do all I can to ensure that the courtroom is accessible for people with physical disabilities, including technological assistance for people with hearing or vision loss. I will be mindful of the need for interpreter services for those who are not comfortable communicating in English. I will also continue to engage in training and activities that help combat implicit bias, so that I can combat it in myself and identify and address it in the courtroom. I did not come to this campaign with a political agenda to promote or an interest in pushing any particular cause in the courtroom. I simply want to follow the law, uphold the Constitution, and offer people an opportunity to be heard. Just law, no politics.

SF courtrooms handle emotionally charged cases, vulnerable victims, and often volatile situations. How would you maintain decorum, safety, and professionalism in your courtroom while ensuring that all participants — including victims, defendants, jurors, and attorneys — feel respected and heard? Please include relevant experience in your own trial history, if any.

In college and the years before I went to law school, I worked in restaurants and bars all over San Francisco. I waited tables in fancy cocktail bars, tiny but very busy restaurants, and sports bars. As a bartender, I worked in neighborhood bars that were slammed after

softball games, pub crawls, and for sports events. I learned how to deal with the many and varied personalities that walk into a restaurant or bar every day. These experiences taught me how to stay calm in the face of an irate person, diffuse rising tensions, provide respectful and kind service to all people, and not to take personally the actions or comments of people behaving poorly.

My work in the service industry has translated to many skills that serve me in my legal career. So much of my case work has involved highly emotional issues including domestic violence, elder abuse, fraud, and homicide. I have had fights break out in the courtroom and in the hallways related to my cases, I have been physically threatened by people in the courthouse, and I have worked with victims and witnesses who were terrified to even talk to law enforcement, let alone step inside a courthouse. In volatile situations, I have been able to maintain my composure and work to keep vulnerable people safe. The first priority is always safety, and thankfully the police officers and sheriff’s deputies at the courthouses work hard to ensure safety for those attending court. Notably, sometimes it is better to minimize the presence of law enforcement for some victims and witnesses who feel less safe due to prior bad experiences.

These different work and life experiences taught me how to deal compassionately and professionally with people on both their best and worst days. In the courthouse, I encounter many people on their worst days. In those moments, because of my background, I know how important it is to ensure that people feel they have been heard and that what they have to say, or sometimes just their presence, matters. I know that it is important to remember that everyone's circumstances are different, but not to assume I know or understand them without being told. I am empathetic and kind, but not without reasonable limits and boundaries. I have developed thick skin and understand that doing the right thing often means that someone will be unhappy. I have seen great judges in San Francisco make the hard and unpopular decisions by considering all the facts and the whole person in front of them before coming to the just and right conclusion, not the obvious or easy one. I hope and believe that I can do the same if I am elected.

Judges exercise discretion in sentencing and other decisions within statutory frameworks. What principles and/or experiences would guide you in your decision making process?

The statutory goals of sentencing are punishment, deterrence, and rehabilitation. Balancing these goals to ensure accountability, public safety, and the needs of the individual being sentenced is challenging and important work. One of the best ways a judge can work to improve safety in our communities is by working to address root causes of criminality in sentencing. There are certainly people who simply need to be removed from the community in order to keep others safe, but more often, there is work that can be done to help people convicted of crimes improve their situations through programming, resources, and accountability to the court.

In making sentencing and other decisions, I will utilize the tools offered by the court and call on the attorneys to provide me with as much information as possible, so that I can be sure that we are seeing the whole person to be sentenced, the full impact of the crime that was committed, and all the legal options before me. I will follow the law and be informed by my own experiences within the court system and in my work and life in the community. It is a very big responsibility that I do not take lightly, knowing that the impact on everyone involved can be huge. But, I am ready to apply my knowledge of the law, experience, and judgment to make both the big and small decisions that come to the court every day. I will work hard to be fair and just in my rulings.

Public trust in the courts depends on consistent, clear, and fair application of the law. How will you promote transparency and public confidence in your courtroom? Are there practices you would implement — such as clear explanation of rulings, data sharing, or procedural improvements — to strengthen trust?

In many areas of the law, a full explanation or “record” must be made to support a decision. However, that is not always the case and if a judge were to fully explain every decision, they would never get through a day. As lawyers, we have a tendency to slip into a language of numbers and code sections (I am often guilty of this), but that makes it harder for the community to follow proceedings. As a judge, I can promote transparency by speaking clearly and in plain language as much as possible. I am a very approachable person, by nature, so I expect that people will feel comfortable asking questions in the courtroom. Not all proceedings can be public, for different reasons around confidentiality and attorney-client privilege, but I can maintain an open courtroom to make as much of the process clearly visible to the public as I am able.

Personal

Tell us a bit about yourself!

How long have you lived in San Francisco? What brought you here and what keeps you here?

I have lived in San Francisco since 2001 and have loved the city since the day I moved in. I moved to the Bay Area in 1999, to work with City Year in San Jose. I was in San Jose for a year and then tried to head back to the east coast, where I grew up, but immediately regretted leaving California. After only six months in New Hampshire, I was back in San Jose, working at a day care to make ends meet and applying to college at the University of San Francisco. I had not even toured the campus, but knew I would be happy in San Francisco, and I was right.

I immediately immersed myself in the city. Within a year, I was living in an apartment in the Richmond District, working at Pat O’Shea’s in the neighborhood, and taking MUNI all over the city to enjoy parks, food, museums, and all the city had to offer. My school work was steeped in the culture of San Francisco. My environmental science class took us to the Botanical Gardens to study different regional plants. I took an opera appreciation class and we attended multiple shows at the San Francisco Opera with our class. I spent hours in local cafes writing my thesis and doing school work. I did not understand how anyone could ever leave this city.

As I got older, my commitment to the city grew even deeper. I have lived all over town, from the Richmond, to the Sunset, Potrero Hill, Cow Hollow, and now Midtown Terrace. In law school, I bought a car and began to explore all the wonderful places just outside of the city: beaches, mountains, and beautiful little communities. I met my husband and got married here in the city. We had our celebratory brunch at Red’s Java Hut on the Embarcadero on a beautiful May Sunday. I am raising my three daughters here in the city. They have an amazing diverse group of friends here and are growing up surrounded by different cultures, foods, people, and beautiful spaces. I am involved in their schools and have met wonderful families from all over the city. I cannot imagine a better place to be.

What do you love most about San Francisco?

The food, the people, and the beauty. I love to eat and San Francisco is the place to do it. My girls and I love to go to Chinatown for dim sum and fortune cookies, or the farmers markets for lumpia and local honey. My husband and I love exploring new restaurants, from sandwich shops to fine dining. I also love the diverse community in the city. I always think nothing will surprise me and then I see something new. Learning to love and appreciate all the different people, cultures, and communities in San Francisco is one of its greatest lessons. Finally, it is just beautiful here. The parks, the architecture, and the ocean are all right here and breathtaking. Just last night, I stopped to watch a beautiful sunset on my drive home from activities with my kids. It was breathtaking.

What do you dislike the most about San Francisco?

I do not have too many city-wide complaints. Aside from the large-scale issues that face every major city around homelessness, affordability, and housing, I think San Francisco needs to do more to invest in families and young children to better support long-term community stability.

Tell us about your current involvement in the community (e.g., volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, civic and professional organizations, etc.)

I have judged moot court competitions occasionally over the years and have been a member of some professional associations related to my work, but not involved beyond my membership. Through my work, I have done some outreach within the senior community, speaking at elder care facilities and other organizations about common scams that target the elderly, how to avoid them, and what to do if one is a victim.

My most significant community involvement has been with my children’s schools. I have been involved as a classroom volunteer, I have talked to their classes about my work and the court system, chaperone field trips, help organize school events, run fundraisers, school clean up days, and work with the parent associations. I really enjoy being connected to the school and community, especially in these last years as my kids have been able to attend our neighborhood school.

Thank you

Thank you for giving us your time and answering our questionnaire. We look forward to reading your answers and considering your candidacy!